Rural communities in South Sudan say a road-building project sponsored by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is transforming their lives by making travel faster and cheaper, and by increasing their access to markets and social services.

During decades of conflict in South Sudan, food assistance provided a vital lifeline to people affected by the fighting. Now, the government of the newly independent country has set its sight on attaining food self-sufficiency.

During her recent visit to South Sudan, WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin travelled to Aweil, an area in the north west with some of the poorest food-security indicators in the country. While there, she met with small farmers who are transforming their communities with help from WFP food-for-assets programmes. She sent us this blog post to tell us about them.

Emergency air drops have begun over South Sudan to reach refugees in Upper Nile State with urgently needed food. In South Sudan for a three-day visit, WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said that air drops over the coming weeks would help to feed more than 100,000 refugees who have fled the fighting north of the border.

Asha is one of a wave of refugees who have recently arrived in South Sudan. She spent nine days in the bush, foraging for food to give her children, before she arrived in Maban county. She says there were others in the forest and many of them - including two of her sons - didn't make it.

Jacob fled his home in South Sudan as a child and ended up in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. In the camp he remembers receiving WFP food assistance and realised its importance. He is now living in Canada, where he has established a charity through which he hopes to build schools in his native land.

One year after its birth, the new nation of South Sudan is facing challenges on every side. But none is more pressing than its hunger crisis, which currently affects some 4.7 million people – around half of the population.

Mother of seven Jilil Tika is one of hundreds of refugees that arrive in Yida refugee camp daily, fleeing Sudan's Nuba Mountains. Food is what her family needed most, and WFP provided it. WFP is assisting all refugees arriving in the camp.

Conflict in Sudan's Nuba Mountains continues to drive refugees across the border into South Sudan. Though anxious about the future and often separated from family members, they can at least get some assistance to keep them going.